As Trim had said, the set-up for the Silverwind Tournament was on the smaller side. There was only one screen, as opposed to the many Rondo had dotted around Heles Beach. The marketplace was impressive, even more so than Rondo’s. I had the impression everyone from Silverwind had a stall there. I remembered what Grandma had said about the tournaments being the lifeblood of some towns and villages across the region, and I was beginning to understand. I didn’t have much time to hang around the market, as much as I wanted to see Trims stall, the opening ceremony was about to begin, and I didn’t want to be late.

  It wasn’t as grand an affair as the ceremony in Rondo, fortunately. That one kicked off the circuit, as well as it being in a major city. It went on and on with sponsors and people they needed to thank and so on and so on. This one was a short speech, given by the village head, followed by the drawing of lots for round one.

  I was more excited than nervous. It was a state of mind I was pleasantly surprised to find myself in. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but the results of the tournament mattered less to me than expected. Which was not to say I didn’t want to give the best performance possible, I did, but I was well aware that this wasn’t Rondo. There was nothing softening the blow anymore, veteran trainers were going to be participating, and a match-up with one of them could end the competition before it truly began. A few weeks ago, I might have claimed it was unfair, but that was silly. The circuit was to decide the strongest trainer after all, how long your career had been to that point didn’t factor into it. The Rondo tournament was already a gift in that sense.

  Upon reflection, the system started making a little more sense too. If it was as easy as Sunny claimed getting a grant for being a first-year trainer was, it was because they weren’t expected to win much, and instead, spend the year gaining experience. After that, they were on their own, or they’d have to look for a personal sponsor.

  Whatever the case, I wanted to give my all and get as far as I could, but I wasn’t dreading defeat anymore. That mentality lasted all through the speech until, from the edge of the crowd watching the screen for the reveal of the round one pairings, I saw my name beside Darren’s. Somehow, facing him was worse than if it had been someone like Ducky’s name up there. With Ducky, if I lost, I lost. With Darren, I didn’t want to lose. I still had some pride in me.

  “Lady Luck is feeling cruel today,” said Darren. “Let’s give it our all, I guess. And no hard feelings.”

  “Not at all,” I replied. “This is good luck. I finally have the opportunity to get revenge for our first battle.”

  I applauded myself on my bravado, while inside my mind raced, trying to come up with a way of winning. He was going to use Auri. Wish didn’t have the field set up for him, which only left the Pupitar. That meant Flaafy wasn’t a realistic winning pick; she still didn’t have many moves that could damage Auri to any significant degree, and the type disadvantage was too severe to overcome as we were. That left Junior. Junior was a gamble. She had the type advantage, and we were working well recently. However, without Comfey to keep her calm, I was worried for how long she would listen to my orders, or follow my strategies. Still, Auri was slow, and if Junior could start pummelling her, the match could be over before that became a problem.

  Feeling good about the plan, we said goodbye to Sunny and Luca, who had battles on other parts of the tournament grounds, and Darren and I made our way to our assigned pitch.

  “Good luck,” he said before going to his entrance.

  “You too,” I said.

  We’d arrived a few minutes early, which meant waiting in the competitor's tent. I had Junior out in front of me, my hands on where her shoulders would be if she wasn’t basically a ball of hair.

  “We can win this, Junior,” I said. “You just need to break through Auri’s defences and you’ll have this won. She can’t move fast enough to escape you, and her close-range moves aren’t as varied as her long-range ones. Protect is going to be a problem, but you’ve been practising against Flaaffy, you can shatter it. If we can dictate the tempo of the battle, we’ll win, no doubt about it.”

  “Calla Greyberry?” said a voice. A league arbiter was by the flap of the tent.

  “I’m up?” I asked.

  “You’re up,” he confirmed.

  The field was lush and green, grass growing halfway up my shins, the December air far warmer than it should be. Seems it was true that the north of Silín was hotter than the south. It wasn’t unpleasant; I had my jacket tied around my waist and was in a long-sleeved t-shirt. Madness at this time of year, but the temperature demanded it. Across the field, Darren looked nervous. It was rare for him, or maybe I just hadn’t noticed before, but his little grin had a little tremble to it. I was well composed in comparison, and the cameras weren’t bothering me at all. Not at all. There were quite a few of them. Darren was semi-famous; they were mostly pointing at him.

  The arbiter asked if we were ready. We were. He gave the signal to start. I brought Junior’s pokeball to my lips and flung her out to the field.

  Stolen story; please report.

  “Go get them, Junior!”

  “Let’s go, Kid. You’re up!”

  Appearing in a flash before us wasn’t large and bulky Auri, but a familiar Capsakid, whose head barely made it above the grass. Junior grunted, and I could feel her confidence in me draining. I hesitated, caught off guard. Since when did Darren have Capsakid? More importantly, that was Kurt’s Capsakid, I was sure of it. The image of any of my Pokémon suddenly becoming a different trainer’s flitted through my mind and filled me with such jealousy and repulsion that I pushed it away as fast as I could and endeavoured never to think in that direction again.

  It took a moment for me to recover, but this wasn’t the worst. We still had a good chance, maybe even greater than against Auri.

  “Junior, Fire Punch,” I said. What we had to do remained the same. Attack Kid without letting them set the pace of the fight.

  Darren didn’t take advantage of our slow start. He and Capsakid waited until Junior was almost on top of them before he said:

  “Protect.”

  Junior’s fist, covered in flames, smashed against the barrier. Keeping her head, Junior followed with Brick Break, and on the third hit, broke through Protect. As soon as she did, Kid leapt forwards, dodging past Junior, a green glow on his feet.

  “Trailblaze, Kid,” called out Darren, too late for it to be convincing.

  “Follow him, Junior, don’t give him time to rest.”

  “Leech seed,” said Darren.

  I called for Junior to dodge it, and she did, rolling out of the way of the attack and springing forwards again, her fist once more catching fire. Then the grass around her twisted, catching her as if in an Ursaring trap, causing her to fall flat on her face. Simultaneously, Darren called out Grass Knot, and Kid gave a mocking chirp.

  Junior roared, and I could feel her irritation resonating with mine. I knew what Darren was doing, but two could play at that game.

  “Junior, don’t let them get to you. Use Swagger and Taunt!”

  Junior, brave soul that she was, maintained her focus enough to do as I said. Kid wasn’t ready for it, and in the sudden fit of anger, shot out Bullet Seed. Junior dodged most of them, and though the few that did hit didn’t do much damage, they were enough for her to finally lose her cool. The good news was that with two enraged Pokémon no longer listening to their trainers, we had the upper hand. Junior was bigger and more powerful and dominated Kid in a full-out brawl. The bad news was Junior just wanted to hit him, and was no longer using Fire Punch, choosing instead to rely on moves she was more comfortable with, such as Fury Swipes.

  They traded blows, Kid shooting Bullet Seed in every direction and Junior lashing into him. Every second that passed, victory seemed closer.

  “Snap out of it!” yelled Darren, over and over, as if he could bring Kid back by sheer force of will. A brutal Cross Chop sent Kid flying, landing at Darren’s feet. Junior didn’t let up and followed immediately.

  “Protect,” said Darren. With a whimper, Kid created a barrier, and Junior, once again, crashed into it. She continued using Fury Swipes, trying to break through.

  “Junior, use Brick Break, it’s more efficient,” I said, but she wasn’t listening.

  “Kid, Sunny Day and Growth,” said Darren.

  Still behind Protect, Kid summoned sunlight strong enough for me to swear it was summer. He also grew physically. Not much, but noticeably. Dropping Protect, he used Trailblaze to dodge past Junior again and dived into the long grass, hiding within it. Junior, unable to find the target of her anger, started trampling the grass indiscriminately.

  “Junior, focus, he’s to your right,” I tried telling her. It was useless. She was caught in another Grass Knot, and before she could get herself free, a Leech Seed landed on the back of her head. A thin vine wrapped around her and she roared in pain.

  “Let’s go, Kid,” said Darren. “Now Bullet Seed.”

  A stream of hardened seeds ripped into Junior. She turned to where they came from and charged, but Kid had already moved positions. The scene repeated itself, each time Junior getting weaker, and Kid stronger from Leech Seed. With a bitter taste on my tongue, I raised Junior’s pokeball.

  “Junior, return,” I said, bringing her to the peace inside her ball.

  “We forfeit,” I said, voice clear and strong. It wasn’t the result I wanted, but I was going to take pride in my battle, no matter how out of hand it had gotten. The arbiter called the result. Darren picked Kid up in a tight hug. I walked up to him.

  “Good match,” I said, hand outstretched. “I’ll beat you someday.”

  “I don’t doubt it,” he said. “Even today was much closer than I would have liked. Genuinely, I’d thought we’d lost there in the middle of it. How’s Junior?”

  “She’s fine, she wasn’t too hurt physically speaking, but she’s going to be sulking for a while. She doesn’t like losing control.”

  “Yeah, sorry about that,” said Darren.

  “Don’t be, it’s a valid strategy. You knew I wasn’t going to use Flaaffy?”

  “I mean, that wasn’t a hard deduction. I was keeping Kid a secret for a case like this, though, I’ll admit, I wasn’t expecting it to pay off so well. But since you thought Auri was my only option, Junior would be the logical choice. That allowed me to take advantage of Kid’s interference moves to annoy her. Nothing is worse than being constantly interrupted, I thought.”

  “Well, you were right. Congratulations,” I said.

  “Thanks.”

  We moved off the pitch and Darren was swarmed with interviewers. I told him to have fun, I was going to take a moment. We’d meet up with Sunny and the others soon enough. I abandoned him to his fate. Then I went off to find somewhere private where Junior couldn’t cause a mess if she was still uncontrollable. It was true that she wasn’t too badly hurt, but I still wanted Comfey to check over her, and possibly have a little talk if she was feeling down. Losing to Darren hurt. I wanted to beat him. Dropping out of the tournament didn’t upset me all that much. There would be others, and besides, there were bigger things going on in the world than the circuit. I wondered where Elaine and Ducky were. What was happening to Meloetta and Killian, and all the dreaded politics involved? I wondered if my role, small as it had been in all that had ended.

  I shook myself. I was alive and safe, and there was a joy in that I was coming to fully appreciate.